Jul

Columbia Prof Says the Met Got Duped

While the curators of the hallowed Metropolitan Museum of Art felt pretty confident when they dropped $45 million on a Renaissance Masterpiece, CU art history professor James Beck just called them suckers: he’s convinced that this painting’s a fake.

there's a crappy ArtWatch documentary on Beck and how all art restoration (save the Russian variety) is an evil, horrible thing. Seeing the shots of the Sistina before and after, it's hard to argue.

But I just went to look at this on Thursday and it honestly doesn't look very much like the known Duccio's. The baby's head is way too small and there's a parapet in the foreground which is pretty anachronistic for Duccio.

James Beck is fundamentaly immature and insecure. He typically rallies half-educated neophites to hysterics about non-issues in the art world. Because he lacks the aptitude for the science of Art Conservation and is so prejudice against true scholarship, he never really looks at the facts- starting with the art itself.

The real victims are his students, who will likewise never be taken seriously in the field.